A very warm welcome to you all to another post on my blog. Today we continue the Retro Gaming Blogging Challenge organized by @marcoquin at this link. For 14 days we will be answering 14 questions related to retro gaming. If you decide to participate in the fun, don't forget to use the tags : #retrogamingchallenge and #challenge.
In today's episode I would like to present a game "Impossible Mission", which I played in the 90's on my Commodore 64. It's one of the most difficult games ever created for Commodore 64, but also for other computers of that time. Fortunately, huge level of difficulty of the game made up for high playability. I played this game a lot of time, but I never managed to finish it, because of the lack of even partial description. Later on I guessed what needed to be done and my suspicions were not very different from reality, but in the 90s I never finished it. It was only thanks to gameplays posted on YouTube that I found out how the game needed to be played and knew the ending.
It's hard to classify "Impossible Mission" as one game genre. I would call it...a spy - arcade - platformer, with puzzle game elements.
The creator of the game is one person, Dennis Caswell. He was the creator, graphic designer and programmer. The game was originally released for the Commodore 64 computer in 1984 by Epyx, which was best known for its series of sports games ("Summer Games", "Winter Games", "California Games"), or so-called "joystick breakers", or the racer "Pit Stop 2". In 1988, the sequel "Impossible Mission 2" was made, which I didn't like anymore. The design of the rooms and corridors turned me off, because it was less clear than in the first part. They chopped up so many elements in the rooms that you can get dizzy, and they made an isometric projection to create the illusion of 3D graphics.
Both 2020 games were released on Steam thanks to Pixel Games UK. The sequel "Impossible Mission 2" was released first - in August 2020. Next by the release of part one on 9 November 2020 as "Impossible Mission Remastered", but this is not exactly a successful port of the game.
In addition to the Commodore 64, this game was released on other platforms: Acorn Electron, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 7800, BBC Micro, Sega Master System, ZX Spectrum, PS2, PSP, NES, Nintendo DS, Oric Atmos and PC (Steam).
Steam: Impossible Mission 2
Steam : Impossible Mission Remastered
The title of the game refers to the TV series "Mission Impossible", which was filmed in the late 60s and early 70s, on the basis of which a feature film starring Tom Cruise was made in 1996, as well as its sequels. I think so, at least.
In the game we play as a secret agent, who undertook the task of venturing into the underground base, managed by the genius of evil and mad scientist in one, a certain Professor Elvin Atombender, who wants to take over the world. Our goal is to crack the password, get to the secret control room where Atombender sits and prevent the launch of nuclear warheads. The task seems simple, but believe me... it is not.
We begin the game standing in a elevator, and in the background we hear Professor Atombender's voice, recorded using Electronic Speech Systems (ESS) technology, clearly uttering the memorable words: "Another visitor! Stay a while. Stay forever!". When I heard these words back in the 90s when I first started the game, I was shocked. After these words spoken by the mad professor, a minimap preview and HUD appears, and we can start the game.
In the game there are 8 vertical lift shafts, connected with each other by some rooms. There are 32 rooms on the map itself, and as we ride the lift, we discover an unknown part of the map. Some rooms have only one entrance, while other rooms have entrances on both sides to connect the lift shafts together. Sometimes the entrances are on one level of the room (upstairs or downstairs). Other times it happens that the entrance is at the bottom and the exit is at the top (or the other way round).
ATTENTION: The game is non-linear! Each time you start a new game the map layout is GENERATED randomly and each time the map looks different!
Each time, the layout of the horizontal corridors leading to the rooms changes, so it is impossible to learn the layout of the rooms. What's more... The length of the elevator shafts also changes. The maximum length of a lift shaft can be spread over the entire minimap. The shortest lift shaft I was able to observe in the game took up only... half the length of the minimap preview.
There are 32 rooms to search in the game, as I mentioned earlier. The colour scheme of the rooms comes down to three colours: green, blue and yellow.
In each room we will have to search furniture and other equipment (typewriters, old wardrobe computers, radiators, waste bins, toilets, sofas, lamps, candy dispensers, bookcases, stereo equipment, even fireplaces, etc...). To search an object, you have to stand by it and the joystick handle has to be pointed upwards. Then a balloon appears, just like in comic dialogues, with SEARCHING and a countdown bar. In most cases it says NOTHING HERE. After searching, the item disappears. Our goal is to find 36 puzzle pieces, which we will have to put together in order to enter the control room where Atombender sits. Entrance to the room, where our Evil Genius sits I will show on the screen below.
Not to make things too easy, the professor placed in the rooms some distractions in the form of huge BLACK BALLS (or balls), and ROBOTS armed with Tesla Riffle Cannons firing electricity at a distance of several metres.
Black Balls. The opponent is rather easy to catch. Most of them move slowly and pursue our protagonist. There is one room where a black ball moves very fast, in an orbit with a trajectory that is a horizontally inverted 8, which is the mathematical sign of infinity. I don't know if this is a glitch, but after coming into contact with the robots, the black spheres disappear. Upon contact with it, the protagonist is electrocuted and loses his life.
Robots. An opponent far more dangerous than black spheres. They have programmed different variants of behaviour. Some of them ignore our protagonist and walk along the corridors (or stand still). Others, as soon as they see our agent, immediately shoot with electricity. Sometimes, when a robot sees our protagonist, it immediately starts charging and accelerates, usually standing at the end of the platform and staring at us (sometimes it happens that it shoots us with electricity). There are also robots that walk slowly and every few steps turn back and when they see our protagonist, they chase him (there is another variant: they shoot electricity). Others, on the other hand, stand still and shoot electricity, without even turning around. Some walk on these platforms and shoot electricity every few steps. There are quite a few of these robot behaviours. Most importantly, not to be boring. In addition, several other variants of robot behaviour have been programmed into the Steam version. For example, shooting electricity when we get close to them.
The behaviour of the robots is also randomly GENERATED. You never know how a robot will behave in the next game and that is the beauty of this game.
Unfortunately, we cannot destroy the robots. We can only jump over them by flipping in the air. We cannot jump over the black ball, because it is too big. Before performing a flip over the charging robot, we have to feel the moment of jumping in order not to touch the robot. Why? Because they are also charged with electricity, which kills our protagonist.
Abyss. In addition, the player can lose a life by falling into the abyss. Some rooms on the lowest floors have gaps in the floor, which are better not to fall into. When our protagonist falls there, you can hear his scream recorded in Electronic Speech Systems.
Time Time is also not an friend. We have 6 hours to complete the mission. We start the game at 12:00 and end it at ...? That's right, at 6:00. You probably think 6 hours is a lot. Apparently so, but ... for each loss of life, the game adds 10 penalty minutes to time. So, You will lose 6 lives and an hour passed, you will lose 36 lives and ... GAME OVER. We can check the time by standing in the corridor or in the elevator and entering the computer.
If we don't complete the mission within 6 hours, GAME OVER follows. The outer border of the screen turns white, the screen begins to shake, and in the background we hear the demonic laughter of Professor Elvin Atombender, then the screen turns all white and black pixels begin to flood the screen at an express pace (most likely in random order). If we get the right number of points, the game will allow us to enter our name and sign up for the Hall of Fame. After that, we can press the Run Stop or Restore button and start the mission from the beginning.
In order not to be too difficult, the game has prepared aids for us.
When searching furniture and devices, we may come across passwords that disable robots for some time (they are shown in the picture of a robot and three letters ZZZ, which in comics mean sleep), and passwords that restore the original position of vertical platforms.
Where to do it?
In each room there is a terminal (I always called them computers) where we can turn off the robots for a while or reset the position of the platforms.
To enter the terminal, you have to stand in front of it and use the joystick handle upwards. To exit the terminal, we must select the first option from the bottom - LOG OFF. If we do not have the collected passwords, we can try to play hacker, in 1/100 (I guess) cases we will be able to enter the correct password. When we fail to guess the password, the word PASSWORD REQUIRED appears, when we manage to enter the password correctly, we are greeted by the word PASSWORD ACCEPTED. When we manage to temporarily disable robots, we can touch them without fear of losing our lives. It takes about 30 seconds to turn off the robots.
In addition, in the Steam version in one of the terminals (I think in the random one) a mini-game has been added - pool bilard.
Among 32 available rooms on the map, 2 have a mystery music game. There are two rooms: yellow (with the entrance on the right side and blue (with the entrance on the left) with mysterious consoles. Above the console we have a screen with a preview of it, because of the appearance (alternating white and black squares) I called it a checkerboard .
If we approach the console and point the joystick up, this ... music mini-game will start. Random squares will turn green and sound notes. At the beginning there are 3 notes. Our goal will be to organize the note from lowest to highest (eg DO-MI-SOL). Then a handle appears, which we control with the joystick and we have to select the appropriate square with the fire button. After solving the puzzle, the squares on the chessboard begin to change their position and after a while we can continue to play, but each time it will be more difficult because there will be more and more notes. Very fun to exercise your memory, but what is it for? I never discovered it. Perhaps it is such a "time killer", a moment of breath.
If we manage to compose the password from the puzzle, we will be able to open this mysterious door. I never did it, but tried to play with cheats.
There is a short, several-second-long cut-scene in which we see this crazy Professor Atombender shouting three times: "No! No! No!". You can notice the animation that accompanies the movement of his mouth. After this few seconds of cutscene, we hear a female voice saying: "Congratulations! Mission Completed!", And then the game sends us to the place where we will have to enter our nickname in the Hall of Fame. Then we can start playing again.
Is it worth playing? I think so. If you are a patient person, you like challenges in the form of logic puzzles and difficult games, then "Impossible Mission" is for you. In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult games on the Commodore 64, right next to such titles as: "Ghost n 'Goblins", or "Mouse Trap", "Henry's House" , "Rick Dangerous" (i was wondering about describing this game), or "Dizzy". It takes nerves of steel to search through all of these pieces of furniture for the 36 pieces of the puzzle and then spend time arranging them. If you are an impatient and nervous person, I do not recommend this game.
I didn't finish this game myself in the 90s, but I was close once. Once I was able to collect all these puzzles and strip all the equipment of the rooms, but I didn't know what to do with the puzzles. Already then I guessed where the exit from this game was, but I could not solve these puzzles, I had no nerves for it. When I have a moment of time, I like to come back to this game. Especially since now its Steam version has been released.
